Acer has been having a difficult time in the computer market over the last several quarters, and has posted consecutive annual losses. Acer also announced during its latest quarterly report that it had taken $120 million write-off due to the declining value of Gateway, Packard Bell, and eMachines-branded computers.

Despite these troubles, the company is touting strong sales of its Chromebooks that use Google’s Chrome OS, while still talking negatively about Windows 8.

Acer says that notebooks running Chrome OS account for 5 to 10% of its U.S. shipments since the machines were released here in November. Acer President Jim Wong said that he expects the ratio of Chrome sales to be sustainable in the long term. He also said that the company is considering offering additional Chrome OS models in other developed markets.

Acer C7 Chromebook

Acer and many other computer makers are looking for alternatives to the Windows operating system because consumers continue to stick with older versions of the operating system rather than upgrade to the latest version.

“Windows 8 itself is still not successful,” said Wong. “The whole market didn’t come back to growth after the Windows 8 launch, that’s a simple way to judge if it is successful or not.”

Wong criticized Windows 8 earlier this month alleging that Microsoft was getting marketing for its new operating system wrong.

Slowly but surely you're beginning to sound just like the early detractors of Windows 8.

If you remember, in the development phase of Windows 8 there was lots of arguing about how people will use computers with Windows 8. Most Windows 8 fans stated that they intend on using the full-screen Metro apps instead of the "antiquated" windowed applications that people traditionally used. Windows 8 fans were all about that new touch-screen functionality and optimization.

Now that Windows 8 has flopped the fans have shifted their message slightly. They say that it still runs Windowed applications better than Windows 7. They say that you don't have to use the full-screen Metro apps. They say that you can install Start8 if you want the Start Button back.

In other words, they're finally realizing that in order to make Windows 8 better, people should work around all the touch optimizations that the detractors have been complaining about from the beginning.

Why are you now creating a strawman? I never said or thought that touch applications would replace desktop apps, and we're talking about how easy it is for people to use win8 for desktop apps, not why they chose to do so.

You still insist that people have to "work around" something to use Win8 primarily for desktop apps. What work are you talking about?

Arranging icons? I had to organize/delete win7 start menu items as well. Clicking the corner on the rare occasion you boot? I can't think of anything else, so do tell.

I think that you're doing your best to avoid admitting the obvious- people view Windows 8 as a step backward. They simply do not want it. They do not want it on their desktop, they do not want it on their laptop, and they do not want it on their tablet.

As I've said from the beginning, Microsoft has positioned Windows 8 in no-man's-land. It's become a jack of all trades, master of none. In an effort to cater both to desktop users and also to mobile users, they've made an operating system that works well on neither.

When half of your customers want pickup trucks and half of your customers want motorcycles, you design a pickup truck and a motorcycle. You do not design a giant motorcycle with a bed on the back.

quote: When half of your customers want pickup trucks and half of your customers want motorcycles, you design a pickup truck and a motorcycle. You do not design a giant motorcycle with a bed on the back.

How does a win8 start page impede your use of desktop apps over a win7 start menu?

What workarounds need to be done?

This discussion isn't about sales (which have been fine, BTW), this isn't about the existence of a minority of overall users that don't want it, or the majority of hardcores, or your perception of want, or the Apple-loving media's trashing of Win8, or like/dislike.

I have always asked only one thing: What is a RATIONAL explanation of how Win8 impedes your desktop productivity? If you keep dodging that, it's because you can't answer it, and thus Win8 hate has no functional basis; instead, it is simply about clinging to the aesthetically familiar.